SARTELL – Superintendent Jeff Schwiebert sent an emotional statement to parents and staff of Sartell-St. Stephen School District last Wednesday night in response to the tragic events that happened in Parkland, Fla. the same day.

On Wednesday afternoon, 17 adults and students were killed when a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. As of Feb. 14, there have been 30 mass shootings in the United States in 2018, according to the not-for-profit corporation Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit characterizes a mass shooting as any shooting with four or more injured or killed, not including the shooter.

Schwiebert said he knew the letter was emotionally charged, but he felt like he had to say something to the people in his district.

“When I started teaching for the first 20 years of my career, we never talked about things like active shooter drills,” said Schwiebert. He said when kids used to bring guns to school it was only because they were going hunting later.

“It hit me really hard when I was sitting there watching the news and I thought ‘Oh it’s just another shooting,’ and I felt terrible,” he said. “We have become numb to not being able to protect our children.”

In his letter, he mentions the ALICE program. ALICE is a training program geared toward preparing schools for active shooter situations. The acronym stands for the five steps one should take in that situation: Alert (become aware of the threat), Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

The school district implemented this program last year to more effectively train students and staff at all levels on how to make smart decisions in the face of danger.

Officer Jill Lundquist is one of two school resource officers assigned to the school district through the Sartell Police Department. She has been involved with ALICE program training to students and staff since it began.

Lundquist said for the students, it’s about making them understand the issue at a basic level. The training is for adapted age-appropriately for elementary school through high school.

“It’s not to scare kids,” she said. “It’s to empower kids if they’re ever faced with a violent intruder or an active threat.”

Some of the training for students involves learning through video. Staff is run through a series of different scenarios so they can learn how to make judgement calls in a variety of situations. They are also put through an online training course. This training goes for everyone involved, from teachers and staff to bus drivers.

A main component of ALICE is to provide staff with the resources to make their own decisions about what is best in a crisis.

“It used to be that if something comes up we hid in the corner, but now we know that’s not the most effective way to deal with it,” said Schwiebert. “It’s just the best approach for our students and staff to make the best judgments to get out of the path.”

Lundquist said it’s a rewarding program, because students are getting life skills that they can use in other aspects of their life beyond school, and teachers feel like they have more agency in their decisions if a threat were to arise.

“A majority of faculty feel fortunate as I do that we have this, because it gives them different options,” Lundquist said. “Some of it is just common sense, but I think that teachers are feeling empowered by it.”

As of last week, the district had completed its third training of the year, a session at Sartell Middle School. It was done early Wednesday afternoon before news of the Parkland shooting.

"I just felt it's important for our community to know that we're protecting our kids," Schwiebert said. "We’re hoping that the unimaginable never happens. That’s why we have to just keep building relationships with kids."